Money money money--must be funny--

SUMMARY: Well, this weekend wasn't a total loss.

Money #1

Boost is such a good worker's raffle participant: Won me another free day's entry at a future agility trial.

Money #2

Today ended with Round 2 of Steeplechase. I think this is only the second time that both dogs have qualified at the same trial, and last time I wasn't able to stay for Round 2.
Tika had a truly gorgeous Tika Steeplechase run, fastest in her class. Unfortunately, she didn't even try to get a toenail into the A-frame's yellow zone. Fortunately, everyone else but one other dog also had faults on the course. We were 2 seconds faster than the winning dog but the 5-second (point) penalty kept us in 2nd place. Brought home $15. I was pretty happy with the run and I never turn away earned money.

Boost ran very nicely indeed; our only two bobbles were that she didn't stick her Aframe contact, so I had to do a little maneuvering to get into position, and then approaching the 2nd set of weaves, she pulled away and came back to me (I thought, and it was confirmed, that I turned oddly), so I had to get her turned around and back in. Otherwise, drop-dead gorgeous, and although we didn't win, I was blown away that she was still fast enough to come in 6th! In 22" Championship! And brought in $14! (Actually, even with the bobbles, hers was even faster than Tika's run.)

[Drat that I forgot to have someone videotape Boost's steeplechase! Curseees!]

Must be funny--

And that was a good way to end the day, because mostly all I can say about the other four classes of the day is:

Who needs Qs or placements anyway?

But if you want me to say more--

• Tika Grand Prix: FLEW off the dogwalk.
• Boost Grand Prix: Refusal on a rear cross on a jump, and so when she didn't stop at the end of the dogwalk, I picked her up and carried her out. Tired of not having the contacts I trained.  She did well on the first half of the course, including actually stopping on the Aframe contact.
  
  
  
• Tika Standard: Next to last jump, took it going in the wrong direction for off-course. The rest was lovely.
  
  
  
  
  
• Boost Standard: 2nd obstacle dogwalk, which she didn't stop at the end of, so I picked her up and took her off.
• Tika Jumpers: CRASHED the first jump, stunning me enough into stopping to see whether she was OK, and when she obviously was,  I just shoved her over some random obstacle to keep her running, which was an off-course. The rest was lovely.
• Boost Jumpers: Two or maybe three runouts/refusals. Didn't ever go back to check the score. She's just looking at ME after almost every obstacle instead of looking for where to go next, and hence taking all those extra steps between jumps. Bah.
  
  Hmmm--compare and contrast Blogger-uploaded video vs YouTube uploaded video--
  
  
  
  
  
• Tika Snooker: I got greedy.
• Boost Snooker: Knocked a red when I yelled "BOOST" at the wrong moment and then I couldn't redirect her from the next obstacle. The first, um, 5 obstacles were nicely done.

Hey, OK, it just occurs to me: I think that that one red in Snooker was the only bar that Boost knocked today. That's very good for her!